Happy Blog

Almost three months have passed and I haven’t written in so long. It has been exhausting to think any more at night than I needed to…even though it’s sad I haven’t been able to document my experience the way I’d like. However, I feel like I have been surrounded by a lot of negative energy in the last couple of weeks, so I’m going to try to make this blog a little happier…

Today I moved into a new apartment, hopefully the final move I will make before packing my bags to leave. My roommate’s contract was not extended, due to failing economies in Europe and the Bolivian girl who was supposed to move in permanently changed her mind at the last minute, so my living situation had to change. I have moved from a less luxurious apartment to one that has more furniture, a full kitchen, and is closer to my favorite coffee shop! I don’t care what she says; this situation is better and more livable. There’s something really sad about sleeping on a mattress on the floor and eating dinner on a mattress on the floor in the living room…or cooking with two electric hot plates. It’s okay for a week or two and then it gets tiring.

I think I’m getting used to life here though. I’m less scared to try things and I feel like I have the city pretty much down…I still hate talking on the phone in Spanish, but I’m not sure how long that will take to change. I need all my senses to understand and the phone messes with both sight and hearing!

One thing I have really learned to appreciate here are the Taxi Trufis. I have decided that the taxi trufi is one of Bolivia’s best inventions. Taxi trufis are a mix of a taxi and a bus. They have specific routes they make—they go pretty much all over the city—and they run most of the day until about 11pm. They put the number of their route on top of the car and in the window usually they put their major stops. So just by watching the taxi trufis pass by you can often figure out how to get closer to where you want to be if you know the city’s major landmarks or streets. However, they aren’t huge like buses—they’re usually no bigger than a mini van or station wagon. They still jam in as many people as humanly possible into these cars, but you always have a seat and it’s less intimidating than the bus. But the two BEST things about Taxi Trufis are that 1.) you pay no more than 50 cents to take a ride—sometimes less; and 2.) there are NO set stops to get picked up or to be dropped off. Of course this reeks havoc in the streets because cars are constantly swerving around one another to pick up and drop off people, but it’s awesome for me! All I have to say is “next corner please!” and they drop me off at the next intersection. It’s pretty awesome, if you ask me. I’m just starting to get comfortable with it. I still like walking when I can, but this type of transportation causes me much less anxiety than the taxistas who are constantly trying to rip this little white woman off! Most taxi rides are not more than a dollar, but I hate negotiating at the beginning of each trip and knowing that they are charging me more because I’m foreign really gets to me! Bolivia is relatively safe in comparison to many SA countries, but taxis are perfect for robbing foreigners and taxi trufis make it a little more difficult…so all in all, I love taxi trufis and I think we should bring them to the US.

The next awesome thing I’d like to highlight is that CBBA has a market ever Sunday where they sell puppies and kittens. I think the awesomeness is pretty self-explanatory…but this market is particularly dangerous for me. It’s not like ‘Just Puppies’ in which the puppies cost a months’ rent, these are adorable puppies for about $20, making them too much of a temptation for me. I have not the slightest clue how to get a dog from Bolivia to the US, which I think is the main reason I haven’t bought one yet, but if I found out it was easy I’d be in trouble

Well, that’s about all I can handle for tonight. I’m tired and I have a couple hours of cleaning ahead of me tomorrow. I will try to write more. There’s a lot to be said about the countryside that I just haven’t had time to write about, but I will say that the myths and traditions that people have held on to her are incredible. That will have to be for another night…or my UNICEF report :-/